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June 12, 2025 • 20 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, friends, thanks so much for joining us today on
Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching ministry of Pastor
Rick Warren. We're so glad to have you with us.
And today Rick continues in his series called Transformed. Together,
We'll dive into God's Word and discover powerful principles that
can truly change our lives from the inside out spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially,

(00:31):
and vocationally. You'll experience how God's truth brings real transformation
to every part of your life. And now here's part
two of a message called Change your Life by changing
your Mind.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Number two, I have to free my mind from destructive thoughts.
That's the second thing I need to do. Free my
mind from destructive thoughts. Your mind needs to be your
mind needs to be delivered. Your mind needs to be
released because you are a prisoner of your own thoughts,

(01:12):
and you're a prisoner of things that people have told
you that simply weren't true. And as I said earlier,
it doesn't matter if it's true or not, if you
believe that it's affected your life. You may have been
told you were clumsy, and maybe you weren't clumsy at all.
But if you believed it, you're clumsy. And you see
yourself that way because you always act in accordance the
way you see yourself. And he says, I've got to

(01:33):
free my mind from destructive thoughts. Now that isn't easy.
And the reason it is easy is because you got
three enemies. And those three enemies are trying to team
tackle you and keep you from having your mind liberated.
These are the things that keep you from fulfilling all

(01:54):
your good intentions. You know, all those good intentions about
things you'd like to change in your life. Change this,
I'm gonna change that, and I'm gonna change this, and
I'm going to change that, and it never never happens.
Why Because you have three enemies in your mind that
are battling in your brain to keep you from doing

(02:15):
the things all your best intentions would like to do,
all your good resolutions, things like that. And they're not
gonna give up ground easily. You're gonna have to fight
to free your mind. What are the enemies, let's write
them down. Number one. The first enemy is my old nature,
my old nature. I want to show you a Verse Romans,

(02:38):
Chapter seven, Verse twenty three Paul talks about how his
old nature keeps him in mental bondage. She says this,
I see in my body a principle at war, a
principle at war. There's that battle for your brain. I
see in my body a principle at war with the

(02:59):
law of my mind, taking me captive to the law
of sin that dwells inside of me. He's using war
language here. Let me put it this way. Do you
ever find yourself doing things that you don't really want
to do? That's the battle? Okay, let me say it

(03:22):
this way. You don't have to raise your hands on
this one. But have you ever knowingly engaged in self
defeating behavior? I know this isn't good for me, but yeah,
what's going on there? The battle in your brain, the
battle in your brain. You have all of the best
intentions in your new nature. I want to do the

(03:44):
right thing, But the battle in your brain, and the
first battle is with your old sin nature. Your old
nature is not your friend. It is the source of
all your bad habits. Romans eight fives says this on
your outline, those who are dominated by their sinful nature
think about sinful things. But those who are controlled by

(04:07):
the holy spirit, think about things that please the spirit.
Notice it's all about your brain. It's about how you think.
So the first thing that's I may have a good
intention for changing something in my life, but my old
nature is going to battle me on it. The second
thing that's gonna fight me, the second enemy is Satan.

(04:27):
And Satan wants to control your mind. He can't, but
he wants to control your mind, and so he sends
these ideas, these thoughts into your mind. Now, let me
be real clear. Satan cannot force you to do anything.
If you're a Christian, you have a holy spirit in you.
Satan cannot force you to do anything, because the greater

(04:49):
is he that is in me than he that is
in the world. But he can make suggestions, and those
suggestions are very very powerful. And he is constantly continually
planting negative thoughts in your mind. And he'll use other people,
or he'll use the television. If you know you can't

(05:09):
get a he'll just throw a thought in your mind.
You go where in the world that one come from?
Have you ever been praying and you're praying real hard,
and all of a sudden, the weirdest thought comes in
your mind while you're praying you know where did that
one come from? Well, I'll tell you where it came from.
The devil just dropped little bomb on your brain. Okay. Now,

(05:33):
Martin Luther said you can't keep the birds from flying
over your head, but Rick Warren says, you can keep
them from pooping in your hair. Okay, And you can
duck and you you know, and you can move, and
you don't have to accept a thought. One of the
most important things is don't believe everything you think. That's

(05:58):
one of the most liberating thoughts you'll ever get. I
don't have to believe everything I think. You see, we
automatically think that if we think it, it must be true.
Are you kidding me? You think a lot of stuff
that's not true. In fact, maybe a majority of the
stuff you think isn't true. And you have all these

(06:21):
ideas and you think, well, I thought it, it must be true.
Of course it's not true. So just because you get
a thought in your mind, it may come from your
old said nature, it can may come from the devil,
doesn't really matter. If it's not true, it's not true.
You don't have to think. You don't have to believe
everything you think. Fact let's just say it together. I
don't have to believe everything I think. Let's say it.

(06:42):
I don't have to believe everything I think. If you
will listen to that one truth right there, you're on
the road to mental health. Because not everything you think
is true. Stuff you think about yourself, stuff you think
about God, stuff you think about your husband, your wife,
or a life or community or the government, or it's

(07:03):
just not all true just because you thought it. But
Satan puts these thoughts in the moment you wake up.
The moment you wake up, he starts dropping little seeds.
You're not gonna have a good day today. Life is
gonna really be bad. Nobody's gonna like you. In fact,

(07:27):
you're flat out ugly. If I were as ugly as you,
I wouldn't even show my face. And you've got to
start getting all of this talk going on in your brain.
Why in the world am I even trying? It's not
gonna be any different. And he starts giving you all
these reasons to give up, and you haven't even started

(07:48):
the day yet. See if you get up in the
morning and you don't meet the devil face on, and
it just means you're going in the same direction, follow
that one, all right, And so he's gonna drop these
little thoughts on you. And then sometimes they'll say, go ahead,
you deserve it, really yeah, go ahead, get angry? Good

(08:11):
even How dare they say that to you? Why don't you?
And he's just constantly dropping thoughts. When the devil gives
a thought, we call it temptation. When God gives a thought,
we call it inspiration. But both of them are putting
thoughts in your mind, and then you're coming up with
your own thoughts. We call that stupidity. Okay, now these

(08:36):
thoughts are going on in your mind, but you got
this enemy called Satan. Look at this up here on
the screen, tewod Corindians two eleven says. Paul talks about
I've forgiven that man, a guy in the church. You'd
really messed everything up. He's really critical and problems. I've
forgiven that man so Satan won't outsmart us. What's he
saying there? He's going when I am unforgiving, I'm falling

(08:59):
into Satan trap. I've forgiven that man so that Satan
won't out smartest, for we're very familiar with his schemes.
Satan wants to keep you in bitterness. Satan wants to
keep you in bondage. She wants to keep you in resentment.
If you have not forgiven anybody, you've fallen into Satan's trap.

(09:20):
And Paul goes, hey, we're wise to this guy. He's
been using the same traps for so many long. He
tries to get you hurt, and then he tries to
get you bitter, and then he builds on that bitterness.
He gets a foothold in your life, and on and
on and on. Anytime you refuse to forgive anybody, you've
fallen for Satan's trap. Point here is he says, Satan
has schemes and you need to be aware of it.
So you got the enemy number one, that's the flesh,

(09:42):
and you got enemy number two, that's the devil. Then
the third enemy is the world's value system, and that
is culture around you. The world the flesh and the devil,
and the world is not helping you be a more
disciplined person. Are they? Does anything in our society encourage

(10:04):
self discipline? No, not at all. In fact, every advertiser
saying you deserve a break today, have it your way,
we do it all for you. It's all about you
Mountain Dew, My favorite commercial says, obey your thirst. In
other words, be an animal. Just do whatever it feels
like doing. Okay, obey your thirst. And so the world

(10:26):
has their value system and is promoted by advertisers, and
is promoted by movies, and is promoted by television, is
promoted in songs, and it's certainly promoted by celebrities. So
nobody in around you is actually encouraging you to live
a responsible, mentally healthy life. One John two sixteen says

(10:48):
this here on the screen, all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life. In other words, that's passion,
possession and position, or it's it's the lust of the
flesh that's sex, the lust of the eyes that's your salary,
and pride to life, that's success and status. He's saying,

(11:09):
this is what everybody is going for. Okay, money, section power,
He says, all these things. It's not of the fathers,
but it's of this world. And so everything around you,
all the commercials, all the media, they're not encouraging you
to think smart, to think healthy, to think wise. They're
encouraging you to do the other thing. So how do

(11:31):
you fight this battle? I mean, it's no wonder. You
have all these best intentions for changing, but then you
got this triple threat of your own old nature the devil.
So you got the nature within you, you got the devil
against you, and you got the world around you. Was
no wonder. You keep struggling with discouragement and spare and

(11:51):
failure and things like that. How do you fight this
mental battle? Look at the next verse, tewod Corinthians ten.
We live in the world. We do not wage war
as the world does. The weapons we fight with are
not the weapons of the world. In other words, because
he's talking about the mental battle we're going through. Our

(12:13):
weapons have divine power to demolish stronghold. Circle the word stronghold.
We'll come back to that word in just a minute.
Our weapons have the divine power to demolish strongholds. We
demolish any argument and every pretension. That's the arguments in
your own mind, the pretensions in your own mind that
sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And here's

(12:36):
the important part. We tape captive every thought to make
it obedient to Christ. Notice this is warfare language, and
he's talking about this battle going on in your mind,
this mental battle. He said, we demolish strongholds. Now, what's
a stronghold. I want you to write this down. A

(12:56):
stronghold is a lie that I believe. That's a stronghold.
A spiritual stronghold in my life is a lie that
I believe. So the lie might be God really doesn't
love me. That's a lie. The lie might be I

(13:17):
know better than God what will make me happy. That's
a lie. The lie I should do what I want
to do, not what God wants me to do, and
that'll make me happier. That's a lie. I know better
what will make me happy than God does. That's a lie.
And that's a stronghold. Anything that I believe that's a

(13:38):
lie is called a spiritual stronghold in my life. Now,
stronghold can be a false value system like in the world.
It could be a philosophical system like hedonism, which says
the only that matters is pleasure. In other words, the
whole goal of life is to have fun. That's a lie,
it is not true. Or materialism is a philosophical worldview

(14:00):
says the only thing that matters is making money. That's
a lie. That's not true. So secularism, hedonism, materialism, all
that matters is money or sex or power. Those are
all lies, and if I believe them, then I get
a stronghold in my life. Could be a worldview, or
it could be a personal attitude. A stronghold could be
an attitude like I'm never going to forgive that person.

(14:22):
That's a stronghold. I could never forgive myself. That's a stronghold.
I will never amount to anything. That's a stronghold. If
something bad's gonna happen, it's gonna happen to me. That's
a stronghold. It's a lie that you are believing. And
he says, if you're gonna learn to be mentally healthy,

(14:44):
you've got to learn how to demolish strongholds in your life.
Behind every sin is some lie that you're believing. The
Bible calls Satan the father of lies. Jesus says, I
am the truth and the truth that you're free. Satan
is a liar and he's gonna enslave you. So this
stronghold needs to be destroyed. How do we how do

(15:05):
we fight this mental battle? Well, notice two phrases. I
want you to circle it. First, he says, we take captive.
Circle that phrase, we take captive. The word in Greek
is akmalotidzo, and it means it literally means to conquer.
It means to bring under control. It means to capture.
We take captive, we conquer like a country. We amalotidzou

(15:29):
a country. And then the other phrase, once circle, he says,
we make it obedient. We take it captive. Every thought captive,
and we make every we make it obedient, make every
thought obey Christ And that word there literally make it obedient.
Huopokoa means to bring in the submission. How do you

(15:51):
do that? What's he talking about here? He's talking about
how do you make your mind mind? How do you
make your mind mind? You? We bring it into submission,
We take it captive, we make it obedient. Let's just

(16:14):
have a little confession here. My thoughts often disobey me.
They often rebel. My mind often has a mind of
its own. It wants to go in another direction. This
morning I was studying for this message. My mind didn't

(16:36):
want to study. They wanted to sit down with a
big sandwich, some jalapena, potato chips, okay, piece of mud pie,
I'm making you all hungry now here. See what I'm doing.
I'm messing with your mind. Okay, okay, you're already salivating

(16:58):
on that kind of stuff right there. You know. And
if you got add or ADHD, your mind often goes
off in a whole different direction. And you get ready
to pray, and you're going, what do I say? I
don't know, I don't anything. Say you got anything of that?
Say Lord, I don't anything. Say is anybody identifying with this? Okay?

(17:22):
And you know I don't know. You know, I'm supposed
to pray? What do I pray? Or? Hello God? Amen?
My mind often rebels when I need to ponder. My
mind wants to wander. It doesn't always obey me. When

(17:45):
I need to pray, my mind drifts away. He says,
we take captive, we make it obedient. What's he saying
here is you have a choice. Your mind has to
listen to you and your will. God didn't give you
just a mind. He gave you a will and emotions.
We're gonna talk about emotions next week. But part of

(18:07):
your will is to bring your mind into order.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Thank you for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope I've
got some great news to share with you today. We've
got some generous friends of Daily Hope that have offered
a fifty thousand dollars matching grant, and now here's Rick
to tell you more about it.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread
the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but
all around the world. And we want people to know
that God's word is filled with hope and truth and
the power that we need to follow him every day
is available to every single one. You know as well
as I do, that the Word of God changes lives.

(18:51):
It's a live it's active, and it breathes new life
and new love into all of our lives. So wherever
you listen to this, whether you listen on the website,
whether you listen on a radio station, or whether you
listen to a podcast, you're a part of the Daily
Hope family, and I need your help. We could not
do this without your support. Now, you know, I don't

(19:11):
take any funds from this broadcast. We don't have any giant,
million dollar donor who's giving big gifts to this. It
comes from daily donations from listeners like you. We're one
hundred percent listener funded. Would you continue to pray for
this broadcast, and would you continue to support us, and
let write to me, let me hear from you. I

(19:33):
absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me.
So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry,
and God will bless it, and God will bless you,
and we'll get to heaven and we'll thank God for
all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
You know, when you give a gift to Daily Hope,
you're helping share the hope of Jesus with people everywhere,
and right now your gift will be doubled by the
fifty thousand dollars matching grand So please go to Pastorick
dot com or text the word hope to seven oh
three oh nine. Again, go to Pastorick dot com or

(20:11):
just text the word hope to seven oh three oh nine.
Be sure to join us next time as we look
into God's word for our daily hope. This program is
sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial
support
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